1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel method for making mosaics from an image.
The object of the invention is to provide a procedure that improves the process of making said mosaics, in terms of the quality and similarity to the original of the mosaic image that is produced, making it possible to work manually, semi automatically or fully automatically on said process with optimum results.
The invention lies within the field of art, decoration, architecture, construction and even furniture.
2. State of the Art
Usually, mosaics are made practically by hand, so the artist or craftsperson visually selects the coloured tesserae that best fit the picture to be created, as well as the positioning thereof, which requires great skill by said craftsperson and involves the use of very specialised labour, with the drawbacks that this involves in terms of costs.
Attempts to overcome this problem have led to known industrial processes for making mosaics wherein the image to be produced is digitally processed to produce an image according to the size of the tesserae to be used.
An example of this type of methods can be seen in the publication of American patent application U.S. 2002/0154143, which discloses a method for depicting a mosaic image on the surface of an object. This method comprises the following steps: (a) generating digital data corresponding to a first image, the motif image of the mosaic, by means of computer capturing (scanning) and image editing software, (b) creating a model using a plurality of cells (grid or lattice) that in turn contain a plurality of shades corresponding to shade values contained in corresponding areas of the first image, (c) depicting or applying the model on the surface of the object, and (d) creating a mosaic by covering the model with pieces of material (tesserae), said pieces of material having a range of shades corresponding to the plurality of shades contained in the cells of the grid.
However, this existing method continues to apply traditional methods that it would be desirable to automate and optimise, such as applying the image model to the surface to be decorated, placing the pieces of material onto said surface and, in particular, making a detailed study of the tesserae of the material that is to be used to make the mosaic. Likewise, aspects such as the quality of the mosaic that is produced, its definition and its similarity to the original photo still offer results that are far from optimum.